FRESHWATER VS SALTWATER | Is Saltwater Really Harder?

There are a lot of myths and misinformation out there about setting up and keeping a satlwater marine aquarium vs a freshwater fish tank. Is saltwater really more work than freshwater? How do you set up a saltwater tank? What about a fish only with live rock(fowlr) vs a coral reef tank? How much work is really involved and is a saltwater fish tank for beginners? Or is it more advanced?

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[SighsInternally]

freshwater: medium difficulty
saltwater: hard difficulty
not touching your own hair for 5 seconds: extreme difficulty

[kacywatson]

i had both a saltwater tank and a freshwater tank. due to financial difficulties, i had to give up 1 tank.
i gave up my freshwater tank. i found it much harder to clean and take good care of it. i find saltwater tanks way easier to take proper care of it. cheaper to feed.

[hunterhill]

I just jumped out of bed and got dressed because I thought my cat was DYING, turns out it’s just Heidi’s Cat, Baby?

[babypunkangel]

my quote, when I'm asked if salt water fish are more difficult to keep is "If you know how to mix Iced tea or lemonade without making it taste awful, you just graduated to knowing how to keep saltwater" ! and you just proved me right LOL

[RoxMeisterAK]

About a year ago my husband set up a salt water tank. Having only kept Bettas before that I was super nervous that it was going to be super difficult to keep. I was shocked at how easy it has been. I was also addamently against coral because I've heard they're so picky, but we've had a Kenya tree (soft coral) for about 3 months now and it's doing great- we use filtered water, but not ro/dI water.

[redskyatnight]

Cichlids (African), in my opinion, are the best of both worlds. Beautiful, hardy fish that all my friends THINK are saltwater, but they're not. I put a fake jellyfish in the tank and everyone flips out how amazing the tank is. 💥💥 My cichlid tank keeps having babies...which is cool too.

[joseortiz-kuxk]

why does she keep comparing small saltwater fish to discuss 😂😭

[wilinator]

Saltwater is a lot harder. You are recreating a small ocean and not a dirty pond or river. The fish themselves are harder. But corals are are a whole different ball game.

[shadeshiest]

I used to love and keep nothing but saltwater tanks, but recently these days I'm all about freshwater tanks

[dewaldolivier]

Yea I have discus. I have juveniles too so it's like 5 feedings per day which means lots of water changes.

[istandwithisreal]

It’s better to keep RODI water for the longevity of your fish Since there is copper and other total dissolved elements in the water and don’t worry Sumps are not hard I’m only 12 and I did a whole bunch of research from plumbing to drilling to DIY sumps and it’s actually pretty easy I do my research at bulk resupply TV Best reefing videos of all time

[Martinroadsguy]

I've only been into the hobby for a year or so, but the main difference between freshwater and saltwater aquariums seems to be in the smugness of the people who keep them.

[Mercedes_may]

Just adopted 4 discus for $5 EACH!!! From my local animal shelter

[jeffjackson]

I've kept both, and honestly, esp. if you use a protein skimmer I've not found the saltwater fish that much tougher than my freshwater. But getting into corals, esp. LPS and SPS takes the difficulty to a whole other level. Than you have to get into the right flow, lighting, magnesium, calcium, dKh, as well as making sure the phosphate and nitrate is near 0.

[phantomkrel]

For my nano 10 gallon it’s only filtration is a finex hang on back Refugium with fugeray. I keep cheato macro algae in my fuge. Using RO/DI water or even distilled water is honestly less work in the long run since it will not be feeding algae. Buy a measuring cup for use when mixing water and it’s a lot easier. Example I know with my Red Sea coral pro salt that 1 cup of salt will make 2 gallons of 35ppt saltwater, marine salts are usually designed to work better with RO, RO/DI or even distilled water. Some salts like instant ocean which I don’t advise if you want to keep invertebrates are designed to work with tap water however you still need to use prime or some other product to make that tap water safe first. Reef crystals made by instant ocean would be a good salt for keeping invertebrates because they need the calcium/iodine. If you plan to keep invertebrates you basically need a Reef grade salt to keep them alive and happy however you will need water changes weekly if you ain’t dosing to keep levels up. Never buy marine salt at your LFS it will be much higher priced than online from reputable sites like BRS or saltwaterfish, I buy a bucket of Red Sea coral pro that can make 55 gallons of 35ppt saltwater for $27 dollars from those sites, at Petco or anywhere else it’s about $1 per amount of salt to make gallon. In general equipment at a pet Shop is usually over priced so I all ways advise online shopping. Substrate is all ways around the same price as online. Substrate wise a aragonite base substrate is best it’s about $1 per pound, a 20 dollar bag is really all you need for a 10-20 gallon tank, live rock is expensive so you all ways want to buy base rock ie calcium carbonate and than buy one live rock to seed your base rock this will be the bulk of your biological filtration. It really isn’t that difficult. Just don’t add copper or let any copper get in the tank or you will have to start over.

[aviatortrucker]

The biggest turn off about saltwater tanks is the continuous cleaning of algae since you can not use normal algae chemicals. The other big problem is the mess created by salt creep. Cichlids are just as pretty, they’re cheaper and there’s less maintenance.

[jingrou]

And anyways since I’m a beginner in saltwater I’m obviously buying clownfish cuz I think it is the easier for me based on my research

[stephaniequirk]

heidi, could you do a video about the cost of fish keeping? I really would like to have a tank, but I'm curious about the cost involved.

[ngccharle]

aquarium need a lot of caring and water changes every week or 2 week and cleaning the tank from algae and feeding the fish every day and testing the water and it cost a lot . so for who that do not has the time for that and they travel a lot go and buy an ultra HD screen and connected to 4k video aquarium from
internet and you can watch the fish on hd screen all the day without
the need of water change and feed and all that complicated stuff

[jacobjenkins]

Great video, but the example you gave about discus in comparison to clownfish is basically a pointless statement because discus are one of the if not the most difficult fish to take care of and clown fish...well, are the goldfish of the saltwater aquarium world.